


advisory committee

by youcouldmakealife



Series: it's a setup [19]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, YCMAL 'verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26181730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: “Oh fuck,” Joey says.“There it is,” Casey says.“Holy fuck,” Joey says.
Relationships: OMC/OMC
Series: it's a setup [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1669567
Comments: 58
Kudos: 336





	advisory committee

Joey is the dumbest motherfucker in the entire world, and possibly in the universe.

He’s very sad to say it takes a conversation with Casey to realize that, and not, oh, the ‘Scratch is in love with you’ from Willy, because in hindsight, that’s a statement it’s pretty impossible to misinterpret, isn’t it.

“Joey,” Casey says when Joey’s finished summarizing-slash-venting about the conversation because what the fuck is going on, “Have you ever considered that um, Nick might be in love with you?”

“No,” Joey says. “Obviously not, because—”

“Joey!” Casey says. “You know when a bunch of people are telling you Nick’s in love with you, that should maybe tell you that Nick’s in love with you?”

“Except Scratch is straight,” Joey says.

“Uh, bisexuality exists,” Casey says.

“I know that, obviously,” Joey says. “But Scratch isn’t—”

“Joey,” Casey says. “He got weird about Owen. Like, really weird. He ghosted you when you told him that Owen thought the two of you were in a relationship — well, he didn’t ghost you then at all, you’re just weird and codependent. You’re _weird and codependent_. And when you said that what Willy told you was ridiculous and hilarious, Nick thought you were saying that him loving you was ridiculous and hilarious, of _course_ he was pissed off.”

“Oh fuck,” Joey says.

“There it is,” Casey says.

“Holy fuck,” Joey says.

“You are so dumb, I swear to god,” Casey says. “Both of you! Mom and dad literally thought you were Nick’s date to his sister’s wedding—”

“I _was_ Scratch’s date to the wedding,” Joey says.

“But for real,” Casey says. “Dad full on asked me if it’d be cheesy if he took Nick aside to welcome him to the family properly.”

“Why did I not know this,” Joey says.

“Because you’re _so dumb_ ,” Casey says. “Joey, you knew him for like two weeks and since then every single time we talk it’s always at least half about Nick.”

“Because I spend a lot of time with him,” Joey says.

“I _live_ with Leila and I talk about her maybe a tenth as much you talk about Nick,” Casey says. “I was so worried he’d get a girlfriend, like an actually good one, not the girl you’d always rant about because she was mean to him, and you’d get your heart broken, and —”

“Why would I have gotten my heart broken?” Joey says.

“Because you can’t go a day without him without getting like, Nick withdrawal?” Casey says. “You slump around sulking half the summer because it’s been a whole ass four hours since he last texted you. You’ve complained about Nick ignoring you in every single conversation we’ve had since he backed off. Like. Constantly. I’ve had to tune you out at points.”

“Hey,” Joey says.

“I know more about Nick Angelopoulos than I do about most of my friends,” Casey says. “Did you know that Nick can do crazy amounts of mental math but he’s embarrassed about it for some reason, like he thinks it makes him a nerd? And that he broke wrist playing ball hockey in high school and Dan Riley signed his cast at an offseason thing because he went to high school with Nick’s sister and he was kind of sad when the cast came off? And that he has the palate of a five year old and that if he had to give up sugar or hockey he’d probably pick hockey and that he can bench press one and a half Joeys? And that he watches way too much true crime stuff and sometimes you watch it with him and you hate it because you have trouble sleeping after like a wimp? And that he doesn’t cry at movies unless an animal dies so you make sure you double check that whatever you’re going to watch doesn’t include that just in case?”

“Yes?” Joey says. Those are all things Joey is aware of. Except he’s not a wimp, true crime stuff is objectively scary — they’re _true_ crimes. Crimes that _happened_. It’s not weird to be disturbed by them.

“Of course you do,” Casey says. “Because you were the one who told me _all those things_. Sometimes _more than once_.”

“What is your point here?” Joey says. “Other than proving you don’t tune me out like, all the time.”

“My point is you and Nick were basically a unit in absolutely every way but romantically,” Casey says. “And so if you said ‘hey, Case, I think I’m in love with Nick’ I wouldn’t be shocked or anything. So like. Are you?”

“I haven’t thought about him that way,” Joey says.

“Right,” Casey says.

“No, I mean it,” Joey says. “He was like — off-limits, you know? Roomie, and teammate, and straight, so. Off-limits.”

“Okay, so what if he’s none of those things?” Casey says. “Well, obviously he’s still your teammate. But what if he wasn’t straight, and he was interested? Because that guy thinks you’re the coolest person in the world for some reason. And if Owen and Tate and even _Lee_ are telling you he’s in love with you? Just have to say, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to me, and I don’t think it’s a stretch if you’re kind of in the same place without realizing it.”

“Okay, I—” Joey says. 

“Did you just malfunction?” Casey asks when Joey doesn’t say anything.

“Very possibly,” Joey says faintly.

“Is it a good malfunction or a bad malfunction or—”

“I genuinely have no idea,” Joey says honestly. 

“Sorry,” Casey says. “I didn’t mean to break you. I gotta go.”

“You can’t just break me and then go,” Joey protests.

“If I hide in here any longer there is absolutely no way my boss doesn’t notice,” Casey says. “And I’ve got a deadline. I’ll call you tonight?”

“Okay,” Joey says. “Leave me to my crisis.”

“That is exactly what I am doing,” Casey says. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I don’t like that you’re assuming—”

“Goodbye Joey,” Casey says, and then hangs up on him before he can reply.

Joey sits and thinks. Then he looks up ‘what to do if your best friend’s in love with you’, because reading guides is just part of his life now. The first thing he hits starts with ‘Don’t panic.’, which seems like solid advice he is absolutely incapable of following at the moment. When it follows up with ‘give him space’ he closes it in disgust. Fuck the guides. The guides are unhelpful. Joey’s been giving Scratch space for _forever_ now and all it’s done is left him feeling alone.

Except — Joey doesn’t need guides, does he? He has Owen. Owen’s smart. And he has like, experience. Probably not with that very specific situation, but Joey’s sure Owen’s had friends have feelings for him before. Exhibit a) Joey Munroe. And he seemed to know exactly what to do to get things to be pretty normal after very gracefully rejecting him — minus the ‘I thought you and Scratch were a couple thing’, which is hitting _very_ differently in hindsight — so. Owen. 

_hi I’m about to call you it’s an emergency_ , Joey texts, and then very patiently waits the 107 seconds it takes between sending the text and Owen replying with, _Are you okay? Call anytime._ that means Joey won’t be disrupting him in the middle of TA-ing a class or at the library or something.

“What’s up?” Owen asks, sounding concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I am — not sure,” Joey says.

“Did you — what’s up?” Owen repeats.

“So hypothetically if your best friend is in love with you—” Joey says.

“Oh thank goodness,” Owen blurts out. “I think Tate was about one day away from killing you.”

“I have very narrowly escaped death by him or Trigger,” Joey says. “So like, hypothetically—”

“If Scratch was in love with you?” Owen asks.

“If Scratch was in love with me,” Joey says. “What do I do?”

“What do you want to do?” Owen asks.

“I have no fucking clue please help,” Joey begs.

“Well, for starters,” Owen says. “Are you attracted to him?”

“I honestly don’t—” Joey asks. “I don’t know? Like, yeah, he’s objectively a good looking guy, but he was like—”

“Off-limits?” Owen asks.

“Yeah,” Joey says. “Completely.”

“Except he’s not,” Owen says.

“Apparently not, no,” Joey says.

“And how do you feel about that?” Owen asks.

“Desperately confused,” Joey says.

“I don’t blame you,” Owen says, and honestly Joey will buy him drinks for the rest of his life just for saying that. Except Willy will probably try to undermine him and do it himself. “So you guys talked?”

“Uh,” Joey says. “No.”

“So how did you figure it out?” Owen says. “Because Tate says you’ve been completely ignoring every hint. I sort of figured you were like — not interested, but hoping it’d go away if you didn’t acknowledge it. He wanted me to reach out but it wasn’t my business and I didn’t want you to feel ganged up on.”

“I mean,” Joey says. “Willy kind of took me aside after practice and told me Scratch was in love with me? Which was hard to misinterpret.”

Or, apparently, very easy to misinterpret, but Joey’s not going to admit that. Willy will probably tell Owen anyway, but Joey’s not going to snitch on himself. He has pride. Not very much of it, but enough.

“ _Tate_ ,” Owen says under his breath.

“And then Scratch came and I may have accidentally implied that the idea of him having feelings for me was ridiculous and hilarious,” Joey says. “So. That happened.”

“Oh _Joey_ ,” Owen says.

“Yeah,” Joey says. “I — please help.”

“I’m going to need you to tell me everything that was said,” Owen says, which is much nicer than Casey ‘apparently tunes Joey out’ Munroe, and Joey dutifully complies, though he leaves out the Willy maybe not being a hundred percent straight thing because that was like, implied, not said, and even if it had been said, that isn’t Joey’s thing to tell. Maybe Owen already knows. Maybe Owen already knows like, first hand. It apparently wouldn’t be unlike Joey to miss that, but he doesn’t think interrupting himself in the middle of explaining with a ‘hey have you and Willy like, done stuff?’ is appropriate or any of his business, and also he has a crisis on his hands.

“Okay,” Owen says when Joey wraps up, and Joey doesn’t know if he’s just imagining it sounding kind of heavy. “That’s—”

“I fucked up,” Joey says.

“You didn’t fuck up,” Owen says. “You were operating without all the information.”

“That you guys kept telling me,” Joey says.

“You didn’t fuck up,” Owen says firmly.

“I literally laughed in Nick’s face,” Joey says. Multiple times, he’s realizing, if Scratch was feeling like that when Joey asked Owen out. And sources seem to point to that.

He swears he can hear a wince. “Yeah, that’s—” Owen says. “You didn’t do it intentionally.”

“Yeah but he probably feels like shit and that’s my fault and — fuck,” Joey says. No fucking wonder Scratch is avoiding him considering Joey has repeatedly like, rubbed his nose in it without meaning to. 

“So to summarize,” Owen says. “Can I summarize, or—”

“I would very much appreciate you summarizing,” Joey says.

“Scratch has feelings for you,” Owen says. “And he’s been avoiding you because—”

“Disengage,” Joey says. “Fuck.”

“Disengage?” Owen says.

“When I was like —” Joey says. It’s too mortifying to tell Owen the context. “All these guides say that disengaging is the best way to get over someone? And I was telling him about them because like—” 

“So he figured that’d be the best way to go about it?” Owen says, mercifully completely glossing over the way Joey like, read stupid guides for him. He’s seriously the best.

“I guess,” Joey says. 

“So Tate was taking it into his hands to — fix it, I suppose, because Scratch has been distracted and you’ve been distracted, and apparently that’s not acceptable during the playoffs,” Owen says, then, “Have you noticed Tate’s a little — different lately?”

“Playoff Willy,” Joey says. “He’s a monster.”

“He’s been…intense,” Owen says, which is just a nicer version of totally agreeing with Joey. 

“You’ve just met First Round Willy so far,” Joey says. “It gets worse as the playoffs go on.”

“Oh good,” Owen says faintly.

“At a certain point he starts yelling at people if they smile too much because we need to be ‘game ready’,” Joey says. “Last year it started during Conference Finals, but he’s gotten a head start this year.”

“Terrific,” Owen says. “That sounds fun.”

“I don’t understand how this is like, less distracting from playoffs than before, though,” Joey says. “I’m kind of having like — a crisis here.”

Playoff Willy’s stupid. And mean. He made two rookies cry last year and now Joey thinks he’s stepping up his game and going for the vets.

“Totally understandable,” Owen says. “So Scratch has been — I mean, could you see yourself in a relationship with him? Because there — I honestly already thought you were, and I know I was wrong, but —”

“Yeah, but what if it’s like —” Joey says. “What if he’s like ‘whoa, nevermind, Joey’s kind of the worst’ after a week and then it wrecks everything?” 

“Do you really think that’s going to happen?” Owen asks. “He knows what he’s getting with you, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah but like, in a friend way,” Joey says. “Not — and he’s not even gay, what if he’s just having like, a weird temporary crisis and it’s like, ‘hey, I’m cured, Joey’s actually totally repulsive to me, I should ask for a trade and never speak to him again!’”

Except who’d want to leave the Scouts? So maybe it’d be ‘ask Joey to ask for a trade’ or ‘go back to ignoring Joey but this time with the bonus sting of Joey knowing exactly why, and it is that he is the absolute worst’. 

“Joey,” Owen says. 

“I know I sound like a sad sack right now, sorry,” Joey says. “I just don’t want to lose him. It’s like. The scariest thing in the world to me.”

“I totally understand that,” Owen says.

“Please tell me what to do here,” Joey says.

“I can’t,” Owen says. “That’s got to be — I can give you advice?”

“Please,” Joey says.

“Think about it?” Owen says. “Really seriously? And then decide what you’re going to do. If you want to keep talking through it I’m happy to listen, and I’m sure Tate would be too, but this is a pretty serious decision, whatever you decide, so think it through.”

“Okay,” Joey says. “That’s good advice.”

“Thanks,” Owen says.

“I should go,” Joey says. “And like. Think.”

“Okay,” Owen says. “Call me anytime, okay?”

“Thanks,” Joey says. “You’re — has anyone told you you’re a great guy?”

“You have a few times,” Owen says. “You are too, Joey. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“Sure,” Joey says. “I — thinking time.”

“Okay,” Owen says. “You’ve got this.”

Joey needs to think about this. For. Awhile, probably. That’s good, intelligent advice. He should get all robed up and have himself a thinking day, consider all the angles, weigh the pros and cons and come up with a mature, unlikely to fail solution, if that’s at all possible, or at least a ‘least likely to end in tears’ one. 

So it’s probably pretty stupid that instead of sitting in his apartment thinking seriously about it, he’s knocking on Scratch’s door.


End file.
